NYC Restaurateurs Anxiously Await Winter Propane Use Ruling

NEW YORK CITY — Slowly dropping temperatures have New York City restaurant owners on a knife's edge as they worry city officials won't allow them to warm their outdoor dining facilities with propane heaters again this year.

Many New Yorkers who dined in relative comfort outdoors during the city's first pandemic winter did so thanks to a special waiver that allowed eateries to use Liquified Petroleum Gas heaters for their makeshift dining structures.

For many restaurants, the waiver proved as much a lifeline as the city's permission to build their sheds — especially when indoor dining faced restrictions.

But that order expired earlier this year, and the pandemic has yet to end. Restaurateurs, who have already been forced to play enforcers in checking coronavirus vaccine cards, are now worried they'll be caught in the crossfire again.

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Will the city attempt to nudge diners closer to vaccination by preventing propane use to heat outdoor dining facilities? For now, city officials won't say which way they're leaning on the issue, or precisely when they'll have a decision to hand down.

“We’re closely reviewing the fire safety implications of allowing propane heaters this year, but electric and natural gas heaters will be fair game no matter what," Mitch Schwartz, first deputy secretary at Mayor Bill de Blasio's office, told Patch. "If the risks of propane outweigh the benefits, then we’ll do everything we can to help restaurants make a smooth transition and keep patrons warm this winter.”

Those words were cold comfort to entrepreneurs who say they need an answer sooner rather than later.

"We only recently reopened," said Stephanie Setranah, general manager at Hourglass Bistro in Midtown. "And what I realized is that, with people who are unvaccinated or people who choose to sit outside, I run the risk of losing business because I can't use propane tanks to keep them warm. So I have to figure out how to build an outdoor structure, to keep that heated, and to be considerate and not considered discriminatory."

Andrew Rigie, who heads the powerful NYC Hospitality Alliance, said "as the temperature drops, restaurateurs are anxiously waiting to find out if propane will be permitted again this winter to help keep their outdoor dining customers warm who aren’t permitted to eat indoors because they aren't vaccinated, or who are vaccinated but aren’t comfortable eating inside yet."

He maintains that "most restaurants also still have a long way to go for a financial recovery, so if they’re fortunate enough to be able to fill their indoor dining rooms, and they can have outdoor dining where they can keep customers warm, it will be very helpful."

Stay tuned is the only real message from the mayor's office right now. But the wait won't be a long one, Schwartz said.

The city doesn't have an "exact timeline," he said. "But we’re aware of the advancing cool weather and we’ll have more to share soon"